Rachel Riley has opened up about the challenges of balancing her television career with raising her two daughters, Mave, six, and Noa, four, alongside her husband, Pasha Kovalev. The couple, who married in 2020, often find themselves like "ships passing in the night" due to their professional commitments.
Riley explained that she and Kovalev make a deliberate effort to coordinate their schedules before accepting new projects, aiming to ensure one parent is always at home. "Before we do anything, we have to kind of check each other's diaries," she told The Daily Mail. "So he's about to go on tour with the boys, so there's five of them going around the country from September through to the middle of November. Summer often in this industry is bit quieter. My work's kind of like screeched up, to try and get as much done before he goes away so that most of the time one of us is home. But it's not always possible, unfortunately."
She added that while they prefer to minimize time apart, they also believe in the importance of their children seeing them pursue their careers. "I think it's good for the kids to have role models where you go out to work and you've got your own life as well and trying to teach them about the value of money, etc. But we definitely prefer it if one of us is at home so often ships that pass in the night because I try and arrange work when he's not there and the other way around."
Riley also reflected on the early days of parenting, noting that Kovalev was able to spend significant time with their daughters when his stage work was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. "When they were younger, I had the boobs, and that was the difference with the parenting. Now that's not an issue, we’re just kind of equal. It's really nice."
Discussing the division of labor in family life, Riley suggested that women often naturally assume a larger share of the household and childcare responsibilities. "I think naturally the women take on a lot of the workload and the birthday parties and the presents and the 'I need to get a thank you card for this person and I need to do a non-uniform day here,'" she stated. "It's just all those things, if it's down to two, things fall down the crack. So I think naturally it goes to one person and more often than not, from my experiences, it's the woman. But so long as the kids are happy, I think it's Yin and Yang, isn't it? He takes the bins out!"
In addition to her personal reflections, Riley has partnered with Energizer for their Summer Safety Swap campaign. The initiative aims to raise awareness about the potential dangers of small lithium batteries, particularly the risk of ingestion by children. "We don't necessarily talk about battery safety and with all the summer holidays, kids are around a lot more at home, so it's a good time to check that everything's safe," Riley said. She highlighted the importance of ensuring homes are child-proof and that batteries are disposed of and recycled properly, emphasizing that prevention is key.